What If Channing Tatum Wrote "G.I. Joe" Sequel?

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Now that the "G.I. Joe" sequel has signed up the team from "Zombieland" to pen a script which, hopefully, won't suck this time, we asked Channing Tatum, who stars as Duke, arguably the realest of the Real American Heroes, what he'd like to see as the franchise returns for a shot at redemption.

"The history and the material that exists already is so broad that we can go anywhere," Tatum offers eagerly. "We keep joking that it's going to be on Cobra Island so we can go to Hawaii and work but I think that's just a pipe dream," he laughs.

We remember when we had dreams, childhood dreams, dreams of coolness that were shattered by Stephen Sommers and his hacktastic "The Rise of Cobra," but we digress.

"I'd like to see it go darker," Tatum continues. "I love that it was a family movie last time but I'd like to see it take a progression toward being edgier."

Well said, Channing. They need to take a page from Christopher Nolan's playbook and leave the cartoon crud out. These are the stories and heroes 20 and 30-somethings grew up with and cherish. Today's ten-year-olds have no idea what makes up half the battle (Note: it's knowing), so why make a movie for them?

Give us a sequel that honors the cartoon's history but was built for adults and audiences might just forgive the debacle churned out last time.

Published at 10:12 AM EST on Jan 25, 2010 | Updated at 2:43 PM EDT on May 30, 2012